Pennies 12

Pennies 12 is one of those Balatro likes that has ingeniouns mechanics and a seemingly attainable goal that becomes all that more engrossing the more you play. Excellent game. Fully recommend.

Prob best game I played all year, including the demo. Scratches balatro itch without being too much like balatro.

mmm coin go ding

This game is hard because I'm too much of a gambler.

genius little game. first balatro-like I've played in a while that really scratches the itch. wish it had a few more mechanics to give runs a bit more depth / variability, but absolutely worth playing as-is

"[i]Pennies 12[/i] is a delightful curio of a roguelite, offering surprisingly crunchy decisions as your engine develops over the course of a run. When starting afresh, it's exciting to snaffle up as many new coins as possible, using them to fill in empty engine slots or replace the basic starter pennies as their (still pretty decent) effect gets rapidly superseded. There are also a ton of intriguing mysteries afoot, to the point where I was continually tempted to risk sabotaging a perfectly successful engine as I was approaching the finish line, just to find out what casting a ritual or pulling a sword from a stone would do. The pinging of coins and groovy, minimalist soundtrack turn into a mesmerizing melody that implores you to do just one more run, whether the previous attempt ended in a great success or abject failure. And while the visuals might seem a bit basic and underwhelming compared to the panache of games like [i]Vampire Survivors[/i] or [i]Balatro[/i], it actually enhances the urge to keep playing more by making the act of starting over feel like far less of a burden. Some of the alternate game modes feel a bit undercooked, and there's a few times where some additional clarity or context for coin effects would go a long way, but these merely temper my enthusiasm, not tarnish it. I'm still excited to play even basic runs, and the promise of new coin unlocks and achievements (there's one for winning a round when all your coins have a value of zero, and I've already begun scheming on how I might approach that) has me thinking I'll be more than happy to keep dipping back in for a while. If you're at all interested in engine building games, you owe it to yourself to give [i]Pennies 12[/i] a look. But hey, that's just my two cents." Full review [url=https://olivigarden.ca/2026/06/03/pennies-12-review/]here[/url]